By In a wonderfully British scene to behold, Stephen Merchant is drinking a cup of tea in a corner of a hotel in Soho. Tucked away, or as much as you can be as a 6 ft 7 celebrity, he politely pretends not to notice when passersby slow down to work out where they know his face from.
A stalwart of British comedy, Merchant wrote and directed BAFTA-winning series The Office alongside Ricky Gervais, a creative partner he went on to collaborate with on a number of projects with such as Extras and Life's Too Short. In the sixteen years since unleashing David Brent on the world he's acted in films such as Hot Fuzz, Run Fatboy Run and gone stateside to appear Marvel's Logan.
He's also continued directing and his latest effort is Fighting with my Family, a film based on the true story of wrestler Paige and her family of swearing, swaggering spandex-clad wrestlers from Norwich. After being scouted by the WWE, Paige won the Divas Championship in her debut match, becoming the youngest champion in the title's history at the age of 21.
Merchant is not a secret wrestling aficionado but had the project bought to him by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson after he stumbled upon a Channel 4 documentary late one night in a London hotel.
"I was so taken with the family’s passion for this thing I didn’t care about," Merchant explains. "I think it's like Billy Elliott, where you don’t need to like ballet to root for him. It’s because he cares that you're on his side".
Playing the Bevis family parents are Lena Headey and Nick Frost, Florence Pugh plays Saraya-Jade (ring name Paige) and Jack Lowden takes on the role of her brother Zak. Elsewhere in the cast Vince Vaughn plays a hard to please wrestling coach, Merchant is a nerdy and uptight dad and The Rock plays, well, The Rock.
"There aren’t many stories about a working class British girl going to America and succeeding," Merchant says while talking about why the story struck him. "There’s a snobbery about working class people, and they think ‘Oh, this silly thing’. To me it’s not different to celebrating the success of a British actor goes to the states and wins an Oscar."
Esquire sat down with 44-year-old Merchant to talk about making jokes on Twitter, being the tallest man in the room and getting misty-eyed at the movies.
Wrestling is theatre, it’s soap opera in spandex. Nobody is trying to fool you.
I don’t know if The Office would be made now. I think there would be a lot more jumpiness about the subjects we covered and whether they’re appropriate.
They did test screenings before it aired and The Office scored the lowest that had ever been recorded - except women’s lawn bowls.
We’re in a time where you have to defend your comic targets. I don’t think any subject that should really be off-limits. I think you should be able to explore all kinds of areas in comedy.
We’re the grandads of British comedy now and an influence on younger generations of British comedians. It seems crazy to me because it feels like yesterday we did it.
Would I revisit The Office? It’s very rare that you go back to things and they’re as good as they were the first time. That said I sometimes wish we’d kept it going longer at the time.
Brits have a strange way of being complimentary. I’ll be walking down the street and a guy in a van will go “Oi Steve you wanker! Love your stuff” and that’s a compliment.
I’ve realised a lot of social skills are just pretending to be more relaxed than you are.
I won’t tell you which celebrities are wankers, but the nicest is a battle to the death between Hugh Jackman and Dwayne Johnson.
I would like to be known as the nicest man in Hollywood but I can sometimes be a little bit shy so can seem aloof.
I remember reading a quote saying “the more time you spend trying to be funny the more you’re not listening”. I stopped trying to be funny because you’re not really having a conversation.
I love a cry in a film. I cried during Moneyball, which is not a film you’d imagine crying in. It’s largely about baseball stats.
'Fighting with my Family' is out now
